Okay...LOTS OF QUESTIONS!!! My husband and I are considering some land in Canada (New Brunswick; Kent County). We are from the US (PA to be exact). Have never been to Canada, so don't know what to expect, etc. We have found in our search for land/homesteads, that Canada has some really nice properties and very reasonable prices. Is there a reason?

If we would sell off our house here, we would get at least $50,000. The property (with a 'fixer upper' and an outbuilding) is $25,000. We would pay off the remaining of our mortage and remaining debt, and have around $5,000 to spare. CLEAR AND FREE FROM DEBT; DREAM NUMBER 1!!! Our next concern is the job situation in and around New Brunswick. Is the economy there good? My husband works in the gas industry (drilling, etc). Of course, since we would be debt free, all we would have is the 'necessaties', which is figured to be around $600 a month. We homeschool, so, public schooling isn't a concern. What are the homeschool laws like in Canada?

I'll stop here for now...lots more ???'s though!:) ANY HELP AND/OR INPUT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!! FEEL FREE TO E-MAIL ME PRIVATELY.

Thank you, Tracey

-- Tracey Smith (grace4me2@hotmail.com), August 10, 2000

Answers

Tracey, before your dreams run away with you, get the current copy of "Backwoods Home magazine" (and/or check out their readers forum) and read the article by (Jackie Clay)about buying and trying to immigrate to Canada, it is a tough project. Just crossing the border in Canada for a vacation trip can be humilliating. It might be easier if you already have a job there and a serious bankroll.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweg.net), August 10, 2000.

Does the capital gains tax kick in if you sell a house and replace it with a house "out of the country"? Even though you would sell your house for $50K, you may not get all of that out of it.

I have been looking at Canadian land through Dignam (www.dignam.com). The prices are real low; but they may not be ideal for homestead. I visited one parcel (25 acres) that was listed for $400 (Canadian) per acre. It was basically situated on a bed rock slab with a fair number of trees growing in the cracks -- not what I wanted for homesteading.

-- Mike O (olsonmr@yahoo.com), August 11, 2000.

As an aside to Mike's question about the capital gains tax on the sale of your home, if you have owned the house for 2 years out of the past 5 and lived in it as your personal residence, you can keep a profit of $250,000/single without paying a dime of tax to the IRS and without needing to buy another dwelling.

Bev

-- Bev C (taxlady@netzero.net), August 11, 2000.

I live in Nova Scotia, next province over from NB. Have you checked out other local papers for the area on prices of comparable land? Also bear in mind that New Brunswick is officially bi-lingual however there are pockets in this province that are 99% French. New Brunswick is very pretty, you do get a "real" winter there with lots of snow. I must admit that it would not be my choice though for Canadian destinations. BTW, Nova Scotia has offshore development and drilling (Natural Gas) if this is the field your husband's work is in, and yes a job probably would make immigrating a little easier. If I could be of any assistance feel free to email.

-- TerriYeomans (terri@tallships.ca), August 12, 2000.

Hi Tracy just saw your query and thought you might want to try British Columbia or Alberta. We've lived in BC all our lives on the coast and have just moved a yr ago to the southern interior. We just love it here. We bought a big round cordwood house and 28 acres with gravity fed water all the way to the 3rd level and we got this for 68,000 dollars. We also wanted to be mortgage free and found out here to be the place for it. There is lots of land cheap and beautful. The climate is cold in winter and hot in summer. Anyway you might want to have a looksy in the cariboo region on www.mls.ca

-- Megan Milliken (millikenfarm@hotmail.com), March 18, 2001.